Hacker News Reader

runesofdoomon Salesforce Lays Off 8k While Paying Matthew McConaughey $10M/Yr to Sit Around

"But we had to do <terrible thing> because it's the law" isn't an excuse, just a different form of condemnation.

runesofdoomon As a US Navy fighter pilot, I witnessed unidentified anomalous phenomena

Venus is even "worse" than the moon for blowing people's minds. It's less frequent, and gets very bright - the 3rd brightest natural object in the sky- able to cast faint shadows, and even visible in daylight. Reportedly, the US Navy once tried to shoot it down: https://m.facebook.com/NavalInstitute/posts/1015948215350217...

runesofdoomon As a US Navy fighter pilot, I witnessed unidentified anomalous phenomena

>Since there are numerous reports spanning decades and even dating to the 19th century, before manned flight,

Manned flight dates to 1783, and engine-powered flight to 1851. Did you mean heavier-than-air flight?

runesofdoomon NRC Certifies First U.S. Small Modular Reactor Design

To quote the late Admiral Rickover, "An academic reactor or reactor plant almost always has the following basic characteristics: (1) It is simple. (2) It is small. (3) It is cheap (4) It is light. (5) It can be built very quickly. (6) It is very flexible in purpose (’omnibus reactor’). (7) Very little development is required. It will use mostly off-the-shelf components. (8) The reactor is in the study phase. It is not being built now.

“On the other hand, a practical reactor plant can be distinguished by the following characteristics: (1) It is being built now. (2) It is behind schedule. (3) It is requiring an immense amount of development on apparently trivial items. Corrosion, in particular, is a problem. (4) It is very expensive. (5) It takes a long time to build because of the engineering development problems. (6) It is large. (7) It is heavy. (8) It is complicated."

From the article, "The first module is expected to be operational by 2029 with full plant operation the following year."

runesofdoomon The Rise of Steel Part II

When looking at profitability and corporate decision making, never forget that decisions are often made not on the basis of the corporation's benefit, but on the advantages to the executive(s) involved.

runesofdoomon The ThinkPad TrackPoint tried to build a better mouse (2020)

I use an X220 for everyday computing, with the trackpad disabled. Before that, I used a Fujistu Lifebook P1120, which also had a trackpoint (and a touchscreen, and no trackpad). I can't use other laptops. If I can't keep using Thinkpads or the equivalent, I'll cobble something together and abandon the laptop form factor entirely.

runesofdoomon An Update on the Open Game License (OGL)

Yes, it is probably too little and too late. They gave everyone using the OGL a short, sharp shock and this mealy-mouthed bit of gaslighting isn't going to change enough minds to make a difference on that.

It might stop D&D Beyond from bleeding out, but the folks who've built successful small businesses around the SRD and the OGL aren't going to forget what they just learned. There will soon be at least one new SRD and Open License that will be more along the lines of Creative Commons licensing and have nothing to do with WotC.

runesofdoomon Why didn’t we get the four-hour workday?

While I doubt the lack of any major competitor to the capitalist West is the only factor, it certainly get very little attention compared to how plausible it seems.

runesofdoomon The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z

Stop treating them as sources if profit for investors?

runesofdoomon An unorthodox scholar uses technology to expose Biblical forgeries

I am not an archeologist, but to provide some relevant context to your later questions, there are at least thousands of Dead Sea Scroll fragments, located and taken by many different parties, from many different locations, over the course of a decade or more in the mid-20th Century.

runesofdoomon Everything SBF is doing is in singular pursuit of not going to jail

Yep. "Don't screw over important investors" seems to be the key rule that Madoff, Holmes and now SBF have broken.

runesofdoomon Why America’s Railroads Refuse to Give Their Workers Paid Leave

The government could nationalize the railroads. (There's even precedent.)

But instead they get the same treatment the airlines do: public support for private profit.

runesofdoomon NASA’s Orion spacecraft reaches the moon, flying 81 miles above the surface

That's not true. Everyone knows that Coppola forced them to shoot on-site.

runesofdoomon LAPD Officer Killed During Training Exercise Was Investigating Cops About Rape

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationale_for_the_Iraq_War

"Accusations of faulty evidence and alleged shifting rationales became the focal point for critics of the war, who charge that the Bush administration purposely fabricated evidence to justify an invasion that it had long planned to launch."

runesofdoomon Embracer enters into agreement to acquire The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit IP

"Embracer’s operative group Asmodee Group is already one of the most successful licensees of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit..."

That's about the level of cleverness I had hiding my villains' names when I was playing D&D in 5th grade. I feel disrespected.

runesofdoomon Uber Rewards is ending on November 1, 2022

It's a company openly founded on "we can make money if we ignore the law". That they weren't trustworthy seemed pretty obvious from the start.

runesofdoomon Why America can’t build

>I just can't imagine living life in this much fear

>You don't make eye contact and keep to yourself, and nothing happens to you.

This sounds like you are living your life in fear.

runesofdoomon When shipping containers sink in the drink

They will be invaluable for future archeologists studying the 21st Century Global Peak.

runesofdoomon Ancient civilisation under eastern Turkey estimated to be 11k-13k years old

Only if we count 35 years of archeology at Gobekli Tepe as 'unknown'.

I find this particular set of archeological investigations to be amazing, and I'm glad to see larger awareness of them. But I think there's a good argument that Betteridge's law of headlines still applies. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge_law_of_headlines

runesofdoomon Tether Required Recapitalization in May 2022

I'm not a crypto participant, but my understanding is that technically Tether doesn't promise redemption in USD, just backing by USD. That still seems like it could precipitate a crash, but IDK if such a crash would be best described as a run or not.

runesofdoomon Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

There's an easy solution if you want the clear conscience of paying creators but the freedom of actually controlling the content you paid for. Buy, then pirate. Don't even bother with ever accessing your crippled purchase.

runesofdoomon Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

Do both. Pay for it to give the creators their cut and send a market signal. Then go pirate it rather than fighting with DRM crippled interfaces.

runesofdoomon The Influence of Neuromancer on Cyberpunk

Anyone interested in the roots of cyberpunk might also be interested in John Brunner's 1968 novel *Stand On Zanzibar*.